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Dawn shook her head, trying to keep herself from demeaning Maxwell for acting as if he knew everything. "Jasper has no intent for Fallow. You... just happened to be an unprecedented asset that he suddenly decided he had a use for," she said with an apologetic tone. Her fingers instinctively crept up her face to rub her temple as she attempted to unravel the situation before her. She took a minute to do so before finally deciding to focus on the moment.
"Are you hungry, Maxwell? I can fix you something from the kitchen or produce some fruit if you'd like."
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Mavis listened to Xena and tried her best to associate what was given with her friends. She drew a blank on the boy and the human girl--she figured Xena must have found another Fantasy in the area--but deduced that the girl was probably Skye. Mavis tenderly patted Xena's head before demounting and creeping in through the back door. Gazes turned to meet her and Robin approached since Marshall was preoccupied with Viola. The room darkened when she entered it.
"Hey," he greeted softly. His eyebrows were furrowed; he could tell something was wrong just by looking at her.
"I didn't find Maxwell, nor any trace of him..." she looked at her feet, "but something important came up and I need to go for a little bit. I don't want to alert anyone but I need to get control of my powers and I kinda have to go away to do it. I didn't want to disappear without saying anything."
His eyes widened, "A-are you sure? Mavis, if you need help, there are other Darkness Fantasies here that I'm sure can give you advice--"
"It's okay, I... found someone to help me. I'll be back. Thank you." She slipped back out the door before he could argue.

---

Maxwell stayed silent for a moment before he nodded, finally starting to relax and calm down fully as he looked up at her, the light from a window high up causing his emerald eyes to almost come to life with light.
''i've.... mostly been too focused on finding Fallow and then the pain from these new wounds kinda had my mind off somewhere else for a bit, so i wasn't exactly focused on what my body needed..... also some painkillers would be nice... occasionally one of these whip gashes will flare up with pain'' he said.
~~~~~~~~~
Xena gave a soft purr when Mavis had patted her head when she went to go talk to her friends, and by the time she returned a young teen who looked almost around Mavis' age and wearing an elegant dress stood where the giant feline had been laying.
''are you ready to leave dear...?'' the girl asked, her voice identical to Xena's.

---

Dawn nodded and turned around to help him, realizing that Justin was there and beginning to worry. Umbra heard everything. Damn it. She dug her nails into her palms briefly before opening the barn door for him. His face seemed to be less composed than usual and when they were both out of the barn, and the door had been closed so Maxwell couldn't hear, she turned to him. "How are you doing?"
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Mavis walked out of the house, surprised that a pretty girl was there in place of Xena. She realized what was happening when she spoke and shrugged it off--there wasn't much about Xena that could surprise her anymore.
"Yeah," she said simply.

---

Justin leaned against the barn after him and Dawn were outside and clutched his head, taking a few deep breathes once again before looking at her with heterochromia eyes, his eye color in one eye and Umbra's in the other.
''he's fighting.... he's trying to take control, i'm doing everything i can to keep him back....'' he muttered, the strain in his voice finally showing now that he knew he wouldn't freak Maxwell out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Xena smiled, a smile that resembled a felines, and gave a nod before she walked over to stand closer to Mavis.
''good, now simply relax'' she said, wrapping one arm around Mavis that way she didn't fall over and gently placed her free hand onto her face, muttering something under her breathe as she lulled Mavis into a deep sleep.

---

She took a deep, frustrated breath and nodded. "Just until he's gone, Justin. He won't know where I'm taking him. Can you do that?" Dawn turned to him with worried eyes, locking gazes with him. She couldn't see well in the dark, but the difference in color was apparent. Dawn bit the tip of her tongue and her muscles tightened--she had to be ready to fight him at any time.
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Mavis did not, in fact, relax. Xena touched her and her primal instinct was to panic and jerk away, but she had to remind herself that Xena was not a stranger. Perhaps living in the forests for so long had ruined her. A hand over her face was even less reassuring. Her fists clenched subconsciously in protest and the darkness around her seemed to intensify. But her knees began to weaken as the spell took effect on her mind and before she knew it she had fallen, enveloped in unconsciousness. The darkness around her was soothed and gradually faded away.

---

Justin flinched and put his hand over his face as he looked away, clenching his jaw as he felt a pang of pain surge through his head.
''i'm doing what i can Dawn, i promise i am.....'' he muttered.
he froze as something hit him mentally and he looked ahead towards the treeline, glancing around a little bit before looking back at Dawn.
''i sense another weather fantasy, it's faint for me since i'm still trying to work out my weather element but i can still sense it..... it could be Maxwell's brother or his brother's friends, you need to get him out of here now because even Umbra sensed it and he is furious'' he said, fearing for both Maxwell and Dawn's lives.
~~~~~~~~~~
Xena easily sensed Mavis' distress about what she was doing, but was doing it for her own safety.
she soon held onto her without much of a problem and pointed a free hand down at the ground, chanting something as a shadowy circle surrounded them and, with a swift movement, they both vanished into the shadow's and into the beast's shared realm.

---

"What?" Dawn snapped suddenly, turning back to the treeline. "How? There's no way for them to even find this place." She put a hand over her head and sighed. "We need to move after this--it's clearly not safe. As far as I know, we're at least a quarter of a days' walk away from any of Maxwell's friends." She bit her lip to keep herself from saying anything more. Revealing Maxwell's friends' location to Umbra was a hazard.
But if it is it'll be convenient, she thought. Dawn took a deep breath to calm herself and walked towards the treeline. "Can you... pinpoint?" She asked.
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Tempest walked towards them just as they vanished. His tail flicked in amusement and he lay down on his stomach, watching the spot that they had been. She still takes care of her Fantasies, he thought, anticipating Mavis's return.

---

he strained a bit to close the eye Umbra was looking through and looked back in the direction he sensed the other weather fantasy aura, focusing on pinpointing it.
''you gotta think, he's Draco's little brother Dawn.... Maxwell's probably been gone for a while for them and Draco's probably still trying to look for him, no matter if he tires himself...'' Justin grumbled.
his eye widened and his head jerked a little bit to the left, immediately pointing in the direction he felt a tug in.
''that way, he's in that direction, he's probably just running blindly'' he said.

Justin soon tensed and coughed up a bit of blood as he felt a bit of pain that seemed to spike through his entire body and collapsed to his hands and knee's, his entire body trembling.
''oh you f----er...! st-'' was all he got out before falling completely silent, almost seeming to freeze where he was, face towards the ground and hidden.
suddenly shadow's shot up out of the ground, missing Justin, and engulfed the barn just to solidify and become a barrier, then shadow's shot out after Dawn and bound her in place by her hand's and feet, cutting off any contact to nature, pulling her back over to face him.

Umbra stood up and brushed his hair out of his face, looking at Dawn with his pink/yellow gaze that almost glowed in the darkened shadows beside the barn as a wide sadistic smile plastered itself onto his face with the small blood trail trickling down his chin.
''you can go argue with Jasper about what happen's to the boy.... but he is staying until Jasper is done with him, you or Justin try that again and i'll f---ing torture your little sister too~ it's so obvious she was with the boy's group so one little word to Jasper and she'll also be targeted for questioning....'' he muttered, stepping closer and gently grabbing her chin with his thumb and index finger so she could look him straight in the eye.

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Dawn silently cursed Justin and laxly cocked her head to the side. She channeled all of her frustration into a single glare that followed Umbra's face. "I don't think you know your place. You hardly know anything about any of us, did you forget? You mess with me, you mess with Jasper." She stretched her neck to the side and held her head normally. Inside of the dark mass that was covering her hands she was clenching her fists, using her nature to gradually disintegrate the shadows.

---

he tsked and in the sphere's holding her hands in place forced her hands open and kept her hands that way, so she couldn't escape.
''Jasper wouldn't have trusted me to help get answer's out of the kid if he didn't know what i was capable of.... you and Justin pulling this stunt is enough to get me on his good side once i tell him everything'' Umbra said, pulling his hand back while chuckling.
he looked over and summoned a shadow minion, who waddled over and offered up one of the syringes Belle kept in the barn that was about half full, just enough to neutralize Dawn's power's and leave her powerless.

''so how about you go relax in the barrier and see if you can find the kid, it'll make this so much easier for me later'' he said, sliding a bit of her sleeve up before injecting the fantasy power neutralizer into her, then rubbed where he stuck her arm to make it work quicker.
he tossed the syringe up into the air and it vanished into thin air, then he grabbed her arm and threw her at the barrier, which she fazed through and fell to the ground.
once she was inside, the barrier fully solidified and stayed that way, Umbra then headed for the house while wiping away the blood trail that was on his chin.

---

Dawn gritted her teeth. She could feel the serum in her right arm as it slowly gnawed at her senses and her connection to the nature around her; it felt as if her skull had been stuffed of cotton. She clenched her left fist, not bothering to waste her energy on getting up, and mustered the power that was ebbing away. Her skin illuminated with the same lime-green light that Fallow had and tapped into her connection to the living creatures around her.
She whittled it down to the strongest ones she could find and beckoned them until she felt her connection die entirely. It was only then that she jumped to her feet and ran towards the barn, throwing open the door and grabbing Maxwell by the arm swiftly.
"We're leaving right now. A horde of beasts is about to wreck the area, and we need to use the distraction to bolt, alright? You've been injected--they won't be able to sense us, but they'll go after Umbra." Dawn dragged him out of the door and circled around to the back of the barn, just as the wind began to violently shake the nature around them. A high-pitch whistle erupted from nearby, cracking the dome of darkness around them. Dawn looked up at the crack and inhaled deeply, waiting for the beasts to attack the source of power so that the dome broke enough for them to escape.
Jasper will protect Fallow, she thought, her mind racing, but then he'll use her as a bargaining chip... he'll have to come out here to defeat the beasts, which means we'll have them on our tail.
A sudden force slammed into the dome, shaking the ground and almost knocking Dawn off balance. She held on tighter to Maxwell as the dome shattered and ran out into the forest.

---

once the dome had shattered all noise swiftly reached them and all they could hear was wind and the sound of Umbra's enraged screeching as he tried to yell for Jasper and Belle while fighting off a few of the animal's that had besieged the cabin.

Maxwell's eyes were wide with absolute terror as Dawn dragged him along into the forest, not even looking back to see what was going on and simply focused on keeping up with her.
''w-what happened? what happened's when you two stepped outside?!'' he asked, demanding an answer now.

---

"It was a mess--Umbra came out and, obviously, made a bunch of threats," she said, speaking quickly as she ran, "so I made a distraction before that serum kicked in and in a desperate grasp called for beasts... they're going to be trailing behind us once this is done so we need to book it." Dawn took in a deep breath and continued to bolt her way through the forest.
"Can you feel your power coming back at all? When did they give you the shot?"
Dawn resisted the urge to look back when she heard Umbra's voice. Her gut tightened at the thought of Fallow and the messy aftermath she would have to pay--knowing Jasper, she'd have to do something to prove her loyalty--but she knew that Fallow would be generally safe and that was all that mattered.
I'll have to follow him a good amount... he's too hurt to make it far enough on his own...
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Fallow's eyes widened and she shrunk back in her seat, instinctively curling up into a ball.
Belle threw open the door of her room and held up a gun. Her eyes were clearly tired and her words were barely comprehensive, a stream of raging cusses that were intoned like a question.
Jasper stood up and clenched his staff, his glare resting on Belle. He answered simply with gritted teeth, "It was Justin." Belle's eyebrows knitted in confusion as he walked towards the door.
She began to follow but he cut her off. "Stay here with Fallow. They're beasts; your pistol has no chance against them." The wind blasted him out the door of the cottage and into the air, where he suspended until Cedar flew beneath him. Jasper mounted and they darted off towards the sound of the danger.

---

''i-i can only feel a tingle right now.... i don't know when they injected me with that weird serum, i was still sorta out of it at the time... all i remember waking up to was a blinding light and then i felt a needle in my neck... then my hoodie and jeans were cut off, hence why Justin gave me a set of clothing'' Maxwell said.
he brought his free hand up and attempted to do something, but all he got was a couple sparks that represented his nature and light power's color wise.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
when Jasper got outside there were a few animal's were focused on Umbra while there's stayed back to wait to see if there was anything that they could possibly do, and off to the side there were a couple laying on the ground with slight steam rolling off them, which meant Umbra had already taken care of them.
Umbra hissed out in pain as one of the animal's grabbed a hold of his right arm with it's jaws and tried to tug him down, but he placed his other hand on it's head and zapped it, causing it to let go and fall to the ground.
he leaped up and spun as he launched into the air, a dark thunder cloud forming underneath him as he floated out of they're reach.

---

Dawn's eyes flicked towards him when she noticed the light. It was then, for some reason, that her protectiveness over Fallow began to sink in--to be ripped away from her sister the same day that they were reunited was too much for her motherly instincts to handle. She swallowed and channeled her focus to Maxwell.
"That's good enough. It'll probably be back when we get far enough for you to go alone." She kept running, holding back from a full sprint because of Maxwell's injuries. We'll be able to cover enough ground by the time they've begun looking... neither of them knows the right direction anyway.
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The creatures were smaller than Jasper had thought they would be--he began to calculate, as he drew closer, the amount of effort it would take for each of them. He didn't have the time nor the will to go overboard. Jasper slowly stood up on Cedar's back with his knees bent. The clouds began to circle overhead, so dark they were almost black, with the sounds of crackling lightning and friction escalating slowly. A feral, shadowy creature reached its shedding hand towards him and Jasper swiftly flicked his staff, a thick serpentine collection of neon lightning cracking down on it.
The creature fell to the floor, its corpse a burnt mass that bore hardly any resemblance to what it had been before. Cedar occupied himself with another winged creature, cawing loudly.

---

Maxwell huffed and looked on ahead of them, clenching his jaw a bit as he did his best to pick up the pace to run almost right beside Dawn.
though after a bit of running he tensed up and slowed a bit, wrapping his free arm around his abdomen as he felt a wound reopen, trying to put some pressure on it.
''Dawn i need to rest for a second... a gash on my side reopened'' he said, though hesitantly since he knew that they were both in danger, him especially since he was they're main source of info, and the fact Fallow was also in danger was also a thing that made him hesitant to speak up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
''i injected some of that fantasy neutralizer into Dawn, she must have used what power she could muster at the time to summon these things.... Justin told her and after all this happened she ran off with the boy'' Umbra said, sending another bolt of dark electricity at a creature that tried to leap up and attack him.
he gritted his teeth and placed a hand over half of his face, anger bubbling in his murderous gaze now.
''i did what i could to prevent this from happening but Justin had a good grip on his control over our shared body.... it p---es me off'' he spat, venom lacing his words as he grew tired of this pathetic fight against simple animals.

Umbra stood up on the cloud and stomped his foot on his little safety platform, sending dark electrical strikes down at the animal's attacking them, a few missing here and there but a few of the animal's that had been struck fell to the ground limp.
''once everything is under control i'll let you have a word with Justin.... i'm gonna go look for the one who escaped and Dawn...'' he growled, shooting off in the general direction he figured they ran in to look for them.
Umbra trusted that Jasper could finish the rest of the creature's off on his own.

---

Dawn bit the tip of her tongue; her face hardened. Her hands clenched slightly in frustration, knowing that this situation could be easily handled if she had her powers back. They don't know which direction to go and there's no way to sense us, she reminded herself, slowing down to a walking pace. The chilly winds of the night still pressed against her bare skin and her shoulder blades tensed up in fear as she was reminded of Jasper.
"Walk," she said softly, not daring to take the risk of stopping completely. "Do you have an undershirt? Is there... any cloth you could use for that?" Her fingers lightly clasped the hem of the tank top she wore under her t-shirt. She began to scan the area for any sharp edges they could use to cut cloth, knowing that neither of them had a weapon, and figured that a nearby branch could pierce cloth with enough effort and she could use human force from there.
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Jasper simply nodded at Umbra, his eyes slightly narrowed--it was difficult to tell whether it was because he was in the middle of a fight or if he was reading into Umbra's words. He only spent a mere second lingering on Umbra before returning to the matter at hand, beginning to conjure a tornado.

---

Maxwell slowed after she did and flinched slightly.
''i do, but the darn thing is in tatters after being whipped..... Justin wrapped a good bit of gauze bandaging around the wounds after he took control, it just stings horribly'' he assured, mostly just to try and keep her from worrying to much.
he glanced around and was quiet for a bit, mostly listening just in case he heard someone following them.
''since he also has the darkness attribute he could attempt sensing us using the shadows around us, if he even know's how too... i know that isn't very reassuring but my sister Mary could control dark and light, and she was able to find us if me and my brother Draco were out too late at our parents cabin when we were younger'' he said.

---

Dawn drew a sharp breath. Her face was glazed with focus as she stared into the empty distance. "I've spent a lot of time around other Fantasies--it's a difficult skill to perform... we'll just have to hope for the best," she mumbled, running her hands through her hair. She felt a prick, the coolness of water, on her face and briefly looked up to the darkening sky.
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By this time, Jasper had managed to utilize his wind as both a weapon and a defensive wall--every projectile shot by the raging Beasts around him were either deflected or absorbed into the tornado. He only broke focus from conjuring the storm above them to scan the perimeters and count the numbers. Hail began to dart from above, amongst the copious amounts of rain, and the clouds crackled with thunder.
He closed his eyes and channeled his focus. The hail sharpened to become a weapon. Jasper flicked his staff in a downwards motion and the wind around him shot outwards, knocking the surrounding animals back and fazing a majority of them--in a split second, purple streaks of lightning forcefully hurled into the ground around him.
Belle bounded out of the burnt remains of the cabin moments later, Fallow shivering by her side. She began to angrily rant at him for almost killing her and was promptly ignored; Jasper mounted Cedar and simply flew off to handle more important matters.

---

Maxwell hissed as a raindrop landed in his eye and used his free hand to rub the eye that was stinging from the cold, gritting his teeth and cursing through his teeth quietly.
''from the fantasy camp.... i figured that much considering everyone knew you guys better than me, my brother and his friends since we had been new at the time before that chaos happened.....'' he muttered.
he didn't want to admit it at the time but since it's been so long his opinion about it had already been lost, but he did like the camp and would've enjoyed staying there if it hadn't been ransacked by monster's.

the shadow's around them started shifting, a dark blob shooting past them before it formed and revealed a young girl with raven black hair with even darker leopard splotches, ears and tail that stopped them.
she landed with a small skid and looked at them, her amber eyes blazing in the remaining moonlight that dappled through the leaves above before the clouds covered the moon.
''if you want to keep from being captured your going to have to trust me'' the girl said, holding her hand out for Dawn to take.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Umbra pretty much sat with is legs crisscrossed and was looking around, his yellow/pink gaze murderous at how Justin and Dawn both worked on helping Maxwell escape, and succeeded.
he floated down to be able to drift quickly across the tree tops on his little dark purple cloud.

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